James Freeman Clarke

Description

James Freeman Clarke

James Freeman Clarke, D. D., an American clergyman, born in Hanover, N. II., April 4, 1810. He graduated at Harvard college in 1829, and at the Cambridge divinity school in 1833; was pastor of the Unitarian church in Louisville, Ky., from 1833 to 1840, of the church of the Disciples in Boston from 1841 to 1850, and again from 1853. He translated De Wette's "Theodore" (2 vols., 1840, in Kip-ley's "Specimens of Foreign Literature"); wrote the "Campaign of 1812," in the "Life and Military Services of Gen. William Hull" (184G); "Eleven Weeks in Europe" (1851); "Christian Doctrine of Forgiveness" (1852); "Service Book and Hymn Book for the Church of the Disciples" (1844 and 185G); "Memoirs of the Marchioness d'Ossoli (Margaret Fuller)," in connection with R. W. Emerson and W. H. Channing (1852); "Christian Doctrine of Prayer" (1854; new ed., 1856); "The Hour which cometh and now is" (1864); "Orthodoxy, its Truths and Errors" (1866); "Steps of Belief" (1870); "Ten Great Religions" (1871); and "Common Sense in Religion" (1874). His aim in" Orthodoxy, its Truths and Errors," was to find the essential truth in a system from which he dissented, and afterward to point out its error.

The purpose of the "Ten Great Religions" is to give an account of each of these, down to the latest and best knowledge of out time, to compare each religion with Christianity, and to show the truth contained in and the deficiencies of each. His "Worship of the Church of the Disciples" combines the features of responses on the part of the congregation, as in the Episcopal service, the extempore prayer of the Congregationalists, and the silent prayer of the Friends. Besides the preceding he has published many articles in various periodicals, several poems, and a number of pamphlets. In 1863 he delivered in Boston the address on the tercentenary celebration of the birth of Shakespeare. For many years he has been one of the overseers of Harvard college, and in 1872 presented a minority report to that body in favor of the admission of women to the college. In 1863 the university conferred upon him the degree of D. D.